CAREER: Implications of a neurobiological model of memory for education: how novelty exposure transforms poor learning into durable memories

该项目由德克萨斯大学的一位新研究人员领导，其目标是了解将不良学习转化为持久记忆的条件，最终目标是改善教育成果。该项目利用了啮齿动物的开创性行为神经科学研究，研究表明，在学习过程中，通过接触新奇事物，可以增强记忆力。众所周知，新奇的事物刺激了长期记忆形成的分子和细胞过程。值得注意的是，现在在实验室动物身上有强有力的证据表明，新奇接触可以作为一种工具，用来稳定在新奇接触期间学到的其他不良记忆。这种认为新奇的接触会追溯性地加强对先前经历的记忆的观点挑战了关于动物如何学习和记忆信息的常见假设。它还提出了一系列有趣而重要的问题，即如何利用人类的新奇体验来改善对容易遗忘的信息的记忆。一系列的行为，心理生理学和神经影像学实验将试图解决的参数，新奇可以作为一种工具，以挽救弱学习。该项目将最终在生物学和地球科学等领域的概念学习的研究，这项研究的最终目标是开发创新和廉价的工具，以促进在现实世界中的学习和记忆。除了研究项目外，还有一项向学生和当地社区进行公共宣传的计划，指导计划，以及一项与教育研究人员合作的计划，以最终转化研究成果，提高在真实教育环境中的学习成绩。该项目由EHR核心研究（ECR）计划授予德克萨斯大学的CAREER奖支持，该计划支持推进STEM学习基础研究文献的工作。该项目试图将啮齿动物行为神经科学中发现的“行为标记”概念转化为人类。行为标记是基于长期记忆的神经生物学模型（称为“突触标记”），该模型详细说明了弱突触增强如何为长期记忆创造条件，但前提是弱增强在关键时间窗口内伴随有较强的突触增强。行为标记将这种神经生物学模型扩展到行为领域，表明学习后的一种单独的、更显著的体验可以挽救次优学习。新奇体验通常被用作这种独立且更显著的体验，因为众所周知，新奇感会诱导海马体的长时程增强，通过中脑向海马体释放多巴胺，并上调可塑性相关基因。因此，新奇的接触可能是一个有价值的工具，刺激记忆形成的其他信息学习大约在同一时间。事实上，啮齿动物的研究表明，如果学习伴随着随后暴露在一个新的开放领域，那么形成不良的依赖于大脑的记忆就会转化为持久的长期记忆。这个项目将测试人类的行为标记假说。我们将发现新奇接触是否可以改善许多依赖于记忆的记忆，包括空间记忆、情境恐惧条件反射、模式分离、记忆整合以及学习和转移教育相关材料。该奖项旨在深入了解新奇性是否以及如何增强人类不良记忆，最终目标是发现简单、廉价和创新的工具来改善STEM学习。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of this project, led by a new investigator at the University of Texas, is to understand the conditions by which poor learning can be transformed into a durable memory, with the ultimate goal of improving educational outcomes. The project leverages groundbreaking behavioral neuroscience research in rodents showing that weak memories can be enhanced through exposure to novelty around the time of learning. It is known that novelty exposure stimulates the molecular and cellular processes involved in long-term memory formation. Remarkably, there is now strong evidence in laboratory animals that novelty exposure can be used as a tool to stabilize other, poorly formed, memories learned around the time of novelty exposure. This idea that novelty exposure retroactively strengthens memory for prior experiences has challenged common assumptions about how animals learn and remember information. It also raises a host of intriguing and important questions on how to harness novelty exposure in humans to improve memory for information that is prone to forgetting. A series of behavioral, psychophysiological, and neuroimaging experiments will attempt to address the parameters by which novelty can be used as a tool to rescue weak learning. The project will culminate in a study of conceptual learning in such fields as biology and geoscience The ultimate goal of this research is to develop innovative and inexpensive tools for promoting learning and memory in real-world settings. Alongside the research project is a plan for public outreach to students and the local community, mentorship, and a plan to develop collaborations with educational researchers to ultimately translate research findings to improve learning performance in authentic educational settings. The project is supported by a CAREER award to the University of Texas by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances the fundamental research literature on STEM learning.This project attempts to translate the concept of 'behavioral tagging,' which was discovered in rodent behavioral neuroscience, to humans. Behavioral tagging is based on a neurobiological model of long-term memory (known as 'synaptic tagging') which details how weak synaptic potentiation creates the conditions for a long-term memory, but only if weak potentiation is accompanied by stronger synaptic potentiation within a critical time window. Behavioral tagging extends this neurobiological model to the realm of behavior by showing that suboptimal learning can be rescued by a separate and more salient experience after learning. Novelty exposure is often utilized as this separate and more salient experience, as it is well-known that novelty induces long-term potentiation in the hippocampus, releases dopamine to the hippocampus via the midbrain, and upregulates plasticity related genes. Thus, novelty exposure may be a valuable tool to stimulate memory formation for other information learned around the same time. Indeed, rodent studies show that poorly formed hippocampal-dependent memories are transformed into durable long-term memories if learning is accompanied by subsequent exposure to a novel open field. This project will test the behavioral tagging hypothesis in humans. It will be discovered whether novelty exposure can improve a host of hippocampal-dependent memories including spatial memory, contextual fear conditioning, pattern separation, memory integration, and learning and transfer of educationally-relevant material. The goal is to gain insight on whether and how novelty enhances poorly formed memories in humans, with the ultimate goal of discovering straightforward, inexpensive, and innovative tools to improve STEM learning.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.